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E-102 Gamma
For other uses, see E-102 Gamma (disambiguation). , or E-102 “γ”, is a fictional character in the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series. He is the second E-100 battle robot created by Dr. Eggman, but later gained his own sentience when he learned of friendship from Amy Rose and turned on his creator. He then assumed his own mission to 'free' his robot brethren from Eggman, and succeeded, though at the cost of his own life. Concept and creation E-102 γ is somewhat a staple in the Sonic series, being the first robot to be fully playable platform-wise and even exhibit a story. With his whole life depicted on screen, he is arguably one of the most developed characters in the series. Concept artwork of Gamma shows his most obvious basis is the EggRobo from Sonic & Knuckles, though he also bears resemblance to many renowned battle robots in science fiction, particularly ED-209, a law enforcement droid from the RoboCop series, most obvious due to its "chicken walker" design. It is believed many fans asked for this shooting ability, but Sega/Sonic Team felt that Sonic the Hedgehog using a gun was inappropriate. The developers thus decided to make another character with this ability in lieu of giving Sonic a gun. However, in an interview with GameSpot, a developer assessed Gamma's creation as simply because "Kids like robots". Appearance E-102 Gamma was a humanoid robot colored in mainly red and white. He possessed no neck, his head and torso coming together in an almost ellipsoid shape. His torso was red with a wide and white vertical stribe down the middle, and possessed a head light with a hexagonal gray frame on the right side. He also had gray mufflers surrounding the pelvis area, and had the number "102" painted in white on the right of his large vertical stripe and the left side of his rear. His head meanwhile was small and platform-like with a yellow shade and green cylindrical eyes. He also had a hexagon-shaped disk hovering behind his neck, and a laser targeting scope on the right side of his head. Gamma's shoulders were black vertical cylinders. Attached to each of them were Gamma's arms, which were long and designed with two joints; his left arm held Gamma's black-gray blaster while his right arm had a tri-digited hand with two points of articulation on each digit. Also, Gamma's right upper arm was red with yellow-orange cuffs, while the parts between his upper arms and forearms were gray. Gamma also possessed two long and inverted legs with five points of articulation and large, black feet with two sharp toes and roller wheels on the heels. The upper sections of his legs in particular were red while the rest of them were gray, except from his calves, which were thick and red with gray and yellow-orange cuffs. History E-102 Gamma was a robotic life form created by Dr. Eggman. As such, its name could refer to many characters in the Sonic universe. Nearly all E-100 models were identical in design, with slight modifications such as expanded weaponry. While they varied in rank, E-100's were considered a profound model by Eggman, and thus usually had a close role with their master, (somewhat replacing the traitorous Metal Sonic as a right-hand minion or personal muscle). Because of their form and origin, however, nearly all E-100s played a tragic role in their starring game. ''Sonic Adventure'' E-102 Gamma was created by Dr. Eggman as the second unit in the E-100 Series. E-102 Gamma was powered by a captured pink bird held inside the robot. Although E-102 Gamma was created by and made to work under the orders of Dr. Eggman without question, which involved assisting in empowering the mystical water elemental Chaos, he eventually turned against his maker's will and devoted his short existence to freeing the animals contained in the other E-100 units. Immediately upon his 'birth', he was ordered by Dr. Eggman to pass a unique training course and to fight his older 'brother', E-101 Beta, to become a crew member on the Egg Carrier and prove the efficiency of his design. After defeating Beta in combat, his first task on board involved capturing a frog who had absorbed Chaos' tail (namely Big's pet "Froggy", who also held a Chaos Emerald that Eggman desired). The mission also served as a contest against his younger brothers, E-103 Delta, E-104 Epsilon and E-105 Zeta, who were all modeled upon Gamma. Gamma passed the mission but as a result of his success, he was forced to watch his less-successful brothers be exiled for their failure and remodeled for generic 'Badnik' duty in undisclosed locations. Gamma was distinctly haunted by the memory of Delta turning to look at him as he was warped away; this memory came up several times later in the game. Eggman then told Gamma, now the sole elite robot on board, to acquire a bird from a girl (Amy Rose) held captive in a prison cell on the Egg Carrier. Upon searching for the cell, Gamma accidentally discovered a disabled E-101 Beta in a lab, undergoing a torturous reconstruction process through machines. Though somewhat disturbed by this sight, he quickly disregarded this and returned to his mission. After finding Amy, E-102 strictly demanded, "Give me the bird.", which then caused her to become very defensive. After explaining her and the bird's situation she proceeded by questioning him, and from this Gamma experienced illogicality in his programming due to a conflict of interests. He then inquired, "Why save that which is useless to you? Does not compute." Amy replied that he didn't need to obey Eggman, that he was "too good" to do that. After this, Birdie flew up to Gamma knowing that his pink relative was inside. After a long stare into Birdie's eyes, perhaps triggering memories from his organic battery, Gamma realized that he needed to release them; he then proceeded to do this. Surprised and touched by this, Amy exclaimed that Gamma must be different from the other robots and tells him she'd be his friend. Gamma had no time to think about what he'd just done before he was called up to the deck to dispose of a pair of trespassers: Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles "Tails" Prower. Gamma was brought up to the deck and was commanded to kill Sonic by Eggman. A grueling battle ensued between Sonic and Gamma which ended when Amy intervened, begging them to stop and explaining to Sonic and Tails that Gamma was a friend. They reluctantly submitted to Amy's pleads Gamma backed down. As the Egg Carrier began to lose altitude and slowly fall to the earth below, Amy encouraged Gamma to free himself, explaining the virtues of friendship before they evacuated. While hovering to the Mystic Ruins, Gamma's life literally flashed before his eyes with pictures of Robotnik, the other E-Series robots, Amy and the Egg Carrier, flashing faster and faster until he saw Amy one last time and realized his purpose. Gamma determines that Dr. Eggman was the enemy, and deleted his master registration program. He then decided to begin a 'rescue' mission, locating his newly registered "friends" (the rest of the E-100 series) and 'freeing' the birds or other animals trapped inside them. Gamma first found and destroyed Delta in Windy Valley, then he located Epsilon in Red Mountain on Angel Island, and eradicated him as well, freeing the animals. Afterward, he ran a scan to locate Zeta; his results showed that Zeta was not in any range of the Mystic Ruins or Station Square. Gamma realized that he must be aboard the Egg Carrier. So he returned to the Egg Carrier to find Zeta. He was horrified when he saw that Zeta had been built into a large defense system for the Egg Carrier. After destroying the upgraded and much more heavily fortified version of Zeta, he overlooked his progress, trying to locate the final E-series model, E-101 Beta, knowing that he must be on or around the Egg Carrier. He overlooked himself as the other E-Series robot that must also be "saved". On the deck of the Egg Carrier, while thinking, Beta flew by the east side of the Egg Carrier as the newly rebuilt E-101 Beta MKII. Gamma quickly moved to the center of the ship where Beta was waiting for him for the final confrontation. Despite Beta's numerous enhancements, Gamma eventually succeeded in destroying Beta. Before exploding, however, Beta gathered up one last ounce of strength and suddenly blasted Gamma at point-blank range, severely damaging him. As Gamma limped away from the battlefield, the bird that was inside Beta flew up close and stirred one final memory in Gamma, of a family of birds together. Gamma, realizing he needed to free his bird, didn't activate his auto repair system. He then collapsed and self-destructed, freeing the pink bird inside, who united with the other bird, a family member whom it had been separated from. After that, the birds reunited with Amy's blue bird companion to become a family. The pink bird later followed Amy to Station Square after it was near destroyed by Perfect Chaos. While Gamma himself could not be there, the bird represented him in spirit. Despite Gamma's betrayal of Eggman, the doctor continued to build robots based on the E-102 model after Gamma's demise, most likely because Eggman never found out about Gamma's betrayal. Other game appearances ''Sonic Shuffle'' Gamma is one of the secret characters in Sonic Shuffle, where the game's description says he returned "...by the strange power of the dreams of Maginaryworld."Sonic's Gallery, photo 37: "Gamma is back, by the strange power of the dreams of Maginaryworld." Like all players he holds a unique playing ability. If he plays a 4, 5, or 6 cards, he will change into wheel mode which will negate the effects of minus ring spaces. If he plays a special card during a battle, two roulette's will spin, and the sum of the two numbers will equal the damage done to an enemy. Gamma is unlocked after obtaining the final image in Amy's room. ''Sonic Adventure 2'' While E-102 Gamma did not directly return in Sonic Adventure 2 and its re-releases, the similar E-1000 are deployed by Eggman. The E-1000 was a mass-produced variant of E-102 Gamma that served as a normal Badnik-style enemy, sporting a pair of cannon arms. Despite being paired for what may seem like double the firepower, the E-1000 line's weaponry, with low-velocity projectiles, and no homing feature, was generally far less effective than E-102's single missile launcher. Their build is also much cheaper, as they are easily destroyed with one attack. As far as it can be assumed by its actions, the E-1000 are not sentient.http://images.wikia.com/sonic/images/0/0b/E-1000.jpg ''Sonic Battle'' In Sonic Battle, a new robot named Chaos Gamma appears. He looks much like E-102 Gamma, except Chaos Gamma has another hand where E-102 Gamma had a missile launcher. Chaos Gamma also possesses several more weapons than E-102 Gamma, such as a grenade launcher and an electric dagger, but lacks the 'headlight' mounted on E-102 Gamma's chest, and the targeting scope on the left side of his head. After Rouge the Bat notices that he looks like a Guard Robo, she apparently does some investigating off-screen and discovers that Dr. Eggman has been experimenting with the effects of Chaos Emeralds on robot cores. After realizing that Sonic and friends mistake it for another Gamma, she theorizes to Knuckles that Chaos Gamma's body simply uses old parts that they recognize. During the game, Chaos Gamma makes numerous attempts to capture Emerl for his master and holds a Chaos Emerald Shard in its body at one point in an attempt to strengthen it. ''Super Smash Bros.'' series ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Gamma appears as a Sticker: ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Gamma appears as a Spirit. Personality Even though the E-Series is a robot line, nearly all exhibit a conscience and personality, opposed to their emotionless physical form and drone-like robotic dialect. Like most of Eggman's sentient robots, they usually betray their master, though unlike over-ambitious models such as Metal Sonic and E-123 Omega, Gamma's leave of duty is usually out of a compassion or remorse for his actions against Sonic and his friends. E-102γ is renowned for gaining his sentence and more or less being the first to portray the thoughts of an average Eggman robot. However, given his mindless actions as Eggman's slave, it is unknown if he gained sentience or had it all along but simply disregarded it at first. Even under evil alignment, however, he holds a sensible and rational manner towards his enemies. However, he becomes somewhat uncomfortable to vivid human emotions, to the point that the emotional conflict of his loyalty pains him, leading to his eventual leave of duty. It should be noted that even when gaining a free will, Gamma still holds a rather regimented attitude and devotion to his mission. He considers his life less important than his friends' and is shown to fight selflessly for them to the brink of sacrificing himself, much like other heroes in the series, the only difference being that Gamma was actually given such an opportunity. E-102γ, like many other Sonic characters, exhibits traits of a stock character, namely the "dark knight" or "tragic villain". Similarly, these characters are villains by loyalty alone and are usually not actually evil per see, often, in fact, exhibiting compassion and nobility towards their enemies. Like Gamma, their fate is usually a grim, yet noble end. Gamma's appearance speculates a rather tragic theory that all past robots created by Eggman, and thus destroyed by Sonic have a sentience and unique personality, though perhaps only Gamma is the first to accept and express his own. Powers and abilities Dolphin 2015-10-14 18-35-33-406.png|Floating mode Dolphin 2015-10-14 18-39-03-724.png|Wheel mode As one of Eggman's destructive gunner robots, E-102 is designed for battle. His main weapon is a machine gun that can internally transform into a 15.5 cm missile launcher that can fire Homing Missiles in rapid succession after locking on with a laser targeting device on his head. Due to the targeting device, E-102's shots are always accurate and allows the pinpoint accuracy to find an enemy's weak spot (as opposed to Omega, who simply shoots in all directions, hoping something will hit). In addition to his missile launcher, E-102 has a variety of modes to change his body frame to suit a situation. He features a normal, upright position when he is walking or moderately running; in a hurry, he crouches down so he can roll on a set of wheels behind his feet to increase his speed, and when he encounters water or another insufficient place to walk, his feet fold in and a rotor appears from his torso, allowing him to float over the obstacle indefinitely and to fly in the air like in the cutscene where he left the Egg Carrier after Tails and Amy left it. He also has a headlight attached to his torso, but it is never actually used in-game. Eggman also installed Gamma with the ability to accept Level Up Items into his system. The Level Up Item Laser Blaster upgraded Gamma's weapon and allowed him to lock-on to an increased number of enemies and deal extensive damage. The Jet Booster permitted Gamma the ability to hover for some time and cross longer distances in the air. Relationships Doctor Eggman His creator and the first person he sees upon 'birth', Gamma exhibited a strong sense of loyalty and devotion towards his master Robotnik, and as such, made his betrayal a painful and reluctant one. While he eventually turns on his master, he does not attack him directly, perhaps only seeing him as an unfriendly form to avoid rather than exhibiting an actual spite or hatred towards him. To add to this, Gamma remained a favorite with Robotnik, who seemingly never discovered his betrayal. E-Series In the later half of his life, Gamma devotes himself to 'freeing' his E-Series brothers, who have spent his life partnered with, assigns them as his friends. It is obvious the feeling is not mutual, however, making his mission a strenuous task of battling and destroying each brother to release their animal counterparts. Ironically, the actions of the E-100s without a direct order from Eggman suggests that they too may have gained a sentience and independence, albeit a jealously and hatred for the brother who upstaged them and ultimately had them disowned. Amy Rose Amy perhaps forms the largest bond with Gamma, eventually convincing him of his mission and his friends. Though originally seeing him as a "bully" for trying to take Birdie, (or 'Lily' in Sonic X), she invokes sympathy for him when it is made obvious even he does not understand the point of his loyalty, the thought of an emotionless being upsetting her, little realizing the effect this was taking on his programming. Ironically, while Gamma's act of heroism changed her view of Robotnik's robots, she is well known for her rather cold, violent disposal of them usually. Their bond is expanded upon in Sonic X, where Amy witnesses his death at the hands of E-101β. Though she had completed her goal of reuniting Lily's family, she was heartbroken by the sacrifice Gamma had made in order to fulfill it. Any connection with the two seems to have been severed in the later titles. Sonic the Hedgehog Having been trained since his creation to destroy him, Gamma obviously sees Sonic and Tails as enemies of Eggman's. However, unlike other rivals, which are usually in the form of a grudge match, Gamma supposedly sees them simply as a target he is ordered to destroy, rather than a form he truly loathes (much how Sonic merely sees him as another of "Eggman's clunkers"). They are all unwilling to take their battle outside Amy's wishes, however, and all back down. Interestingly, it is suggested in the dialogue of Sonic Battle that he, Sonic and Tails were all friends before his "death", though this is never expanded upon in Sonic Adventure. Friends/allies *Amy Rose *Tikal *Sonic the Hedgehog *Miles "Tails" Prower *E-Series **E-101 Beta Enemies *E-101 Mark II *Dr. Eggman Gamma's Story Mishap In Knuckles' Story, after Knuckles finishes his fourth level Lost World, he realizes there are still missing pieces left of the Master Emerald. Soon after, a holographic image of the Egg Carrier appears inside the Master Emerald and Knuckles ponders how he is going to get on board. He looks over to Red Mountain and notices Gamma fall to the ground and run off towards the jungle to Final Egg. Knuckles follows him onto the Egg Carrier. In the overall story of the game, Gamma is still working for Eggman and the Egg Carrier is still running, but Gamma does not travel to the Mystic Ruins (outside of the Final Egg at least) until after the Egg Carrier crashes and he betrays Eggman. In Gamma's story, he is left outside of the hotel in Station Square to go to Emerald Coast. He finds Froggy in Emerald Coast, sees Tikal and returns to the Egg Carrier immediately after he sees Tikal's flashback. There would be no reason for Gamma to travel to Angel Island to get back to the Egg Carrier because it is on the other side of the Mystic Ruins. This would also make Big following Gamma onto the Egg Carrier illogical because for Gamma to get onto Angel Island, he would have to use his rotors to fly over there. Therefore, Big would never be able to follow him this way. *Knuckles and Big both get on the Egg Carrier the same way, by following Gamma to the Final Egg launch station. In Knuckles' case, Gamma used his rotors to fly over to Angel Island and ran over to the Final Egg. In Big's case, Gamma took Froggy and used the train to get over to the Mystic Ruins then went to the Final Egg. In Gamma's case, he gets Froggy in Emerald Coast, sees Tikal's flashback, and wakes up in the middle of his brothers fighting about the frogs unaware of how he got there. *Since Tikal teleported Gamma back onto the Egg Carrier, similar to how she teleported Amy out of the Hot Shelter into the swimming pool area, Gamma could not have transported his way back to Final Egg. Gamma could also not have been at both Angel Island for Knuckles and Emerald Coast for Big at the same time, he also couldn't have been there because Tikal teleported him back instead of him going back to the Egg Carrier himself. *Knuckles seeing Gamma could have been because of an unwanted outcome. Since Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta were sent to find Froggy anyone of the remaining three could have been used to go to Angel Island but Gamma was used instead. *Ignoring Tikal's flashback, Big following Gamma back to the Egg Carrier makes sense since he could follow Gamma straight to the Final Egg. Knuckles, however, does not make sense how Gamma got over to Angel Island in the first place and why he would go over there anyway. In other media Archie Comics thumb|100px|left|Gamma in the Archie Comics. In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, Gamma was the second unit in the E-100 Series robotic group created by Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik. E-102 Gamma was one of the first E-100 Series robots created during Eggman's campaign to harnessed the power of Chaos. Due to an encounter with Amy Rose and her Flicky friend however, Gamma gained a consciousness. Gamma then went rouge and waged war on the Eggman Empire. After over a year spent fighting alone, Gamma was offered to join Guardian Units of the Nation, but was hunted down and destroyed by E-123 Omega. However, he managed to upload his "free will" code into Omega's programming to continue his dream. ''Sonic X'' Sonic X also retells Gamma's storyline from Sonic Adventure. This depiction is somewhat loyal to the game arc, almost down to a word for word re-enactment (though much of the game's dialogue is lost in the transition to the English dub), however rather than battling his brothers he finds them deactivated and uses a unique hacking device in his system to delete their master obedience program, and thus any need to hold their animal captives. This does not work on Beta, however, who is still online and attacks Gamma. Gamma attempts to explain his fate to his brother and convince him to free himself but it falls on deaf ears and so, in a last-ditch effort, he literally clashes with him, fatally wounding them both and "freeing" their animal batteries. As they collapse and explode, their hands grasp into one another's', as a touching final symbol of their unity. Unlike in Sonic Adventure, Amy sees Gamma destroyed and cries. Additionally the birds inside Gamma and Beta are acknowledged as siblings, echoing the relationship between Gamma and Beta. Quotes Trivia *E-102's full name can be converted into a mathematical formula (e - (102 * Euler-Mascheroni Constant )) which equals -56.1577159915 *Gamma is the only E-series robot to have a targeting sight mounted on his head. However, his gameplay model in Sonic Shuffle lacks the scope and the "102" labels on his body. *Gamma is the only playable character in Sonic Adventure to have a theme without lyrics. *Unless Gamma manages to hit a wall corner and glitch downward, he cannot take a step into any water environments. Attempting to do so will automatically transform him into his hover mode until he is moved to dry land, and he will instantly change into his wheeled mode upon landing. Due to this, along with his targeting system, it is ill-advised to take him into a Chao Garden. *The physics of Gamma's Mode Changes change should he be holding something when he transforms. If he changes into his wheeled mode while carrying an item, he will not announce the change, and he will transform back into his default mode upon stopping. Should he change into his helicopter mode while carrying an item, his physics change to become more floating, and he can overcome barriers his normal helicopter mode cannot. *Gamma is the first prominent character in the Sonic game series to die on-screen. *An odd effect takes place in Gamma's Adventure Mode in Sonic Adventure upon completing his story, creating a consistent night-time effect in the Adventure Fields. This happens also in Sonic Adventure DX, but resets upon entering Mission Mode. *Gamma is the only playable character in Sonic Adventure not to appear in the end story of that game, although the pink bird that powered him is present. *Gamma is the only playable character who never encountered Chaos in Sonic Adventure (unless one counts capturing Froggy, who had Chaos' tail, or in Super Sonic's story when the bird that powered him saw Perfect Chaos). *Gamma is one of only two characters to have Sonic Channel artwork identical to their first render, the other being E-123 Omega. **Coincidentally, both characters are robots who were created by Dr. Eggman and then turned against him. *All artwork of Gamma shows him with two yellow "cuffs", however, Gamma's character model in Sonic Adventure shows him with white "cuffs" in select spots. *Gamma is the only playable character who did not receive an updated model with a higher polycount in the DX re-release of Sonic Adventure, nor did he receive updated textures. *In the original Japanese release for Dreamcast, Gamma was a completely silent character during gameplay, only speaking in cutscenes and during his rival battle. This was changed in the International release and all subsequent versions. *Gamma's phrase "Resistance is futile!" is a reference to the Borg from Star Trek. *In Sonic Battle, Amy said, "Hey! It's Gamma!" which means that she knew Gamma's name, despite calling him "Mr. Robot" the last time they met. It should also be noted that Sonic and Tails never interacted with Gamma (apart from fighting him) and Knuckles only followed him to Eggman's base yet, all three know that his name was Gamma. They most likely recalled hearing his name from when he was summoned by Dr. Eggman, to battle with Sonic and Tails. *Gamma was originally intended to be in Sonic Heroes in a team with Big and Chaos.Shiro Maekawa's Tweet explaining the original teams planned for ''Sonic Heroes''. This is likely why Chaos and Gamma were in Sonic Battle, over Omega or the Chaotix. It was mentioned that even though Gamma died in Adventure, his shell still remained and his inner part could have been replaced.Shiro Maekawa's Tweet explaining how Chaos and Gamma could have returned in Sonic Heroes. *If E-123 Omega receives an E-Rank in Sonic Heroes, he references Gamma in his line: "I couldn't even beat Gamma or Beta." References Category:Sonic the Hedgehog characters Category:Male video game characters Category:Sega protagonists Category:Video game bosses Category:Fictional robots Category:Fictional artificial intelligences Category:Fictional henchmen Category:Fictional marksmen and snipers Category:Fictional people who committed suicide Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1999